Do I have to put up bulletin boards? I hate doing bulletin boards. Is that blasphemy? I'm in trouble, aren't I... But seriously, they're time consuming and I have to get creative. Ugh. The worst! Haha.

I searched high and low trying to find the best sources for doing a laminate bookcase makeover. I love DIY projects and couldn't resist the chance to fix up my ugly laminate bookcases in my classroom. I have five of them and they were showing signs of wear, desperately needing to be fixed up.

Inspired by Pinterest and the HGTV / DIY channels, I decided to recreate my boring old desk chair into something I'd be excited to sit in! My chair was ok before, but I wanted something that reflected my personality. I searched around the local fabric stores for the perfect fabric. In the end, I found it at Walmart of all places.

Hello all! I want to share this FREE writing lesson plan for grades 4-6 to help teachers meet the CCSS ELA in their classrooms this coming school year. This lesson will be a great back-to-school writing tool to help teachers get to know their new and incoming students.

Are you having your students make videos for a class project? Then you should definitely show them this TED-Ed on Animation Basics: Homemade Special Effects. Something as simple as how to have an object or person move across screen can go from boring to fun with a few simple tricks! Enjoy!

As teachers, many of us "know" that intrinsic motivation outweighs extrinsic motivation in effectiveness. However, we often resort to extrinsic motivation techniques, such as good grades and candy for doing well or detention and failing grades for doing poorly, in our own classrooms. Dan Pink, a career analyst, explains in this video what science has determined over and over again: "Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think." While his talk refers to the business model, it is definitely applicable to our classrooms. Enjoy!

Ken Robinson reminds educators, administrators, and policy makers to encourage creativity in the classroom instead of trying to squash it with standardized testing and rote memorization. This video is well worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch!

Faith Erin Hicks graduated from Sheridan College's Classical Animation program and is currently a full-time freelance cartoonist. I first became familiar with her work reading the online comic Demonology 101 (1999-2004). She later collaborated on such works as Brain Camp and Friends with Boys. Her style is unique and evident in all her work.